Life Lessons From a Bartender
by Angel In a Rosebed
Summary: This is a oneshot about Cliff getting turned down by a girl, and learning how to cope with it from Griffin. Rated T for use of alcohol.


"I'm sorry, Cliff, I just don't really feel that way about you." Pony frowned slightly as she cast her gaze downwards. She hadn't wanted to say those words, but they were the only words she could have used. After all, they were truthful. The young farmwoman really did not share the same romantic feelings that Cliff had just confessed to her.

"No…it's alright. I understand…" Cliff sighed softly, unable to look up into her eyes. He was crushed, absolutely crushed. Cliff had always been a rather shy young man, and rarely did he ever work up the courage to tell anyone how he felt about them. Now that he finally had…he had been shot down. He felt his heart sink as he turned to walk away. How could he have been so dumb to think that she would return his feelings? He should have just let things be, that way, they could at least have still been friends. Sure, he would have still felt his heart skip a beat every time he saw her, and sure, the longing to just lean over and give her a gentle and loving hug might have drove him utterly crazy, but he would have at least still been able to walk and talk with her, and been able to simply be around her.

"Cliff, I really am sorry…" Pony's voice carried out through the darkness as she called out to him from the edge of her farm. She could feel her own heart breaking. It felt like she was losing her best friend. Why did he have to complicate things like this?! Everything had been perfect when they were simply just friends…

"It's nothing, don't worry about it…" Cliff called back over his shoulder, though he didn't stop in his retreat from the farm. He couldn't stand it to be around her any longer, he just had to get away. He wasn't sure of where he was going, nor did he really care. Anywhere was better than there.

As he walked, he found his footsteps were taking the short walk to the Blue Bar. So, his body wanted to drink all the pain away, eh? Well, he supposed he could do that. He had the room in the inn rented out for another night anyways, so…

Slowly, he opened the door and made his entrance. It must have been a slow night, because no one else was in the bar other than the owner, Griffin. Even Muffy was gone. It must have been her night off or something. With a tired sigh, he slipped over to the bar counter, and sat down.

"Fresh Breeze, please." He mumbled tiredly as he slumped onto the bar. He had his elbow on the bar, his arm up in the air and his head resting on his knuckles. There was a rather dreary look written all over his face, showing just the kind of mood he was in.

Griffin noted the depressed look on boy's face, and brought him over his drink, though it went against his better judgment. As a bartender it was his job to give the people what they wanted, whether it was good for them or not.

"Life not going so well?" The old bartender could at least try and sooth the heartache the boy was so obviously suffering from. With his job, he had heard the stories of many a suffering soul and had done his best to try to ease whatever pain he could with the lessons of life he had learned from both his own experiences and the experiences of others who had told him their many stories.

"No." It was all Cliff would reply as he sipped at his drink. He wasn't a very open person, at least when it came to his past and his mistakes.

"I see." Griffin was used to getting short and sometimes curt replies. It all came with his line of work. However, even if Cliff hadn't given him a direct answer, he could easily tell what was bothering the boy. Most troubles that were drunken away came from a rather common problem - women troubles.

"Trouble with a lady friend?" The old man asked as he dried an empty glass. He could tell from Cliff's expression that he had hit the nail on the head.

Cliff grimaced when asked the question, and remained silent with only a very slight nod to show he was right.

"I see." Griffin replied again with only a slight glance to Cliff as he set the glass he had been drying away on a shelf. He was silent after that, knowing already that Cliff was likely to open up more if he said nothing. Sure enough, he was right. After a few minutes of complete silence, Cliff began to speak.

"She was my best friend…" Cliff frowned as he took another drink. "But…it was more than that to me." He sighed as he finished his drink, and asked for another.

Griffin gave it to him, then started on washing the empty glass of Cliff's previous drink with a special bartender's solution. He nodded his head in response to Cliff's statement, but kept silent for a moment, trying to decide how to proceed. He wanted to be careful, as he didn't want to deal any damage to Cliff's emotional state.

"I take it she didn't return your feelings, then..?" The bartender asked softly as he set the glass up on a shelf. Again, he could tell he had hit right on with his guess.

"…No." Cliff took a rather large gulp of his drink and sighed. "I guess I should have known better. I don't deserve somebody like her anyways." He frowned as he took a smaller gulp. It was true, wasn't it..? Pony deserved someone better than he. Someone without a past like his…

"Hey now." Griffin gave him a slightly stern look. "Kid, you need to brighten up a bit. This girl might not feel the way you feel about her, but that doesn't mean you don't deserve someone like her. I don't know what happened in your past to make you say that, but you deserve to find someone who loves you just as much as she deserves it."

Cliff frowned as he finished off his second drink and ordered yet another. "You don't know anything about me. How can you know something like that?"

Griffin took the empty glass and set another drink in front of Cliff. "Easy. You come to this little valley quite often, and I've seen the way you act around people. I know enough to know that you're not a bad person, or else something would have happened by now."

Cliff took another drink, but just shrugged. It made sense to him, especially in his partially buzzed state of mind. "I guess…" He sighed as he set his glass down for a moment.

"Still…" He frowned. "She turned me down. I should have known better than to mess everything up between us by telling her how I felt."

Griffin frowned slightly. "How could you have known..? Unless you can read minds, there's no way to know for certain how a person will react to what you say, especially to words of such nature."

Cliff frowned. Though Griffin's words made sense, he didn't want them to. He wasn't ready to give up feeling sorry for himself just yet. Quietly, he took another drink, though this one was smaller than the rest.

"I guess, but…now what do I do..? Our friendship is ruined…" He downed the rest of his third drink, but didn't ask for another just yet.

"How do you know..?" Griffin inquired. "Did she tell you that?"

"No, but…how can things ever be the same, now that she knows how I feel..?" Cliff frowned as he asked for another drink.

Griffin hesitated in giving the young man, who was now slightly drunk, another drink. In the end, however, his profession won out, and he gave him another.

"You can't know that for sure unless you talk to her." He frowned, and began to wash the empty glasses again. "You should talk to her, tell her how you're feeling, and tell her you'd like to still be friends. If I know most of the women around here like I think I know them…I'm sure most of them would be willing to at least try just being friends."

Cliff frowned as he took a drink, though it was really more like a sip. "But what if she doesn't? I just don't think I can stand to get turned down again."

Griffin set the clean glasses on the shelf with the others, then turned to give Cliff his full attention. "Then you count your losses and just move on with life. You'll make more friends, and you'll find another girl. One who shares the same feelings that you may someday have for her."

Cliff furrowed his brows, and set his glass down. "I don't think I could ever love another girl like I do Pony." He frowned. At the moment, it was true. Pony was the only girl he really cared about like that. She was the only girl who made his heart skip a beat, then quicken it's pace whenever he caught even a glimpse of her. He loved her. How could this man say that he could move on from that?

Griffin shook his head slightly. "You say that now, but down the road you'll learn to move on, and you'll find a pretty young lass who catches your eye. It might hurt now, but the pain doesn't last forever. Take it from an man with more life experiences than yourself." He gave Cliff a small, reassuring smile.

Cliff frowned. He still was uncertain, but you older male was starting to make sense to him. "I guess…" His uncertainty shined through in his voice, there was no hiding it. However, he pushed his glass aside, and got up.

"Just give it a try." Griffin took the half full glass and set it aside.

Cliff nodded his head slightly, seemingly a bit more confident. He started towards the door, but paused just before leaving.

"Thanks for the talk…" He managed a small smile at him, before disappearing out the door. Though he wasn't completely in his right mind, he headed over to Pony's to talk to her. He knocked lightly on her door, hoping she was still awake.

"Pony…" He called through the door.

Thank goodness, she answered. She opened the door, and gave him a quizzical look, obviously still a little hurt over him just walking off earlier. She spoke not a word to him, but merely looked at him, waiting for him to say something first.

"We need to talk…" Cliff bit his lip nervously. He was afraid of being shot down again, and afraid of her getting angry with him. Thank goodness, however, neither seemed to happen, at least, not yet.

Pony still said nothing, but she opened her door and let him in. Cliff followed her in, and started to talk to her, telling her the things Griffin had told him to talk to her about.

Meanwhile, Griffin smiled to himself as he began to clean up his bar. "He'll be alright," he said quietly as he wiped down the bar's counter.


End file.
